


Clouds In My Eyes

by goddessofcruelty



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Dom/sub Undertones, Excessive Drinking, Kissing, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Pining, Rare Pairings, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 09:40:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3524453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessofcruelty/pseuds/goddessofcruelty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people fall in love slowly, over looks and dates and <em>time</em>. Not Daniel Sousa. No, love punches him in the face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clouds In My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Elton John's [Daniel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA78e27R_J4) which for some reason inspired this fic.

Some people fall in love slowly, over looks and dates and _time_. Not Daniel Sousa. No, love punches him in the face. _By punching other people in the face._

Daniel realizes that he's getting more and more incoherent as he drinks, at least mentally. He's long past incoherent in his one-sided conversation with the bartender.

“Competence,” he blurts out, apropos of nothing. “People who are frighteningly good at their job.”

The barkeep's heard worse, much worse. He just nods and makes appropriately sympathetic noises. Daniel Sousa stares into his glass and his traitorous mind replays the moment. The _Moment_. The one that has him drinking to try and make it go away.

_Jack, shirt torn after being ambushed, the ripple of his arm muscle as he lifts the pipe he'd wrenched out of the wall and swings it at the bad guy's head, all in one powerful move._

“Peggy,” he tells the bartender, “and Jack.”

Peggy's been training Jack, it's obvious, and he might have imagined the two of them a time or two, bodies in close proximity, pressing and sliding against one another. But that's not what has Daniel drowning his sorrows. No, he can forgive himself the odd fantasy or two, but this is _feelings_.

He's known a guy or two who wasn't too picky about who he was pegging, Daniel was in the Army after all, but this, this is something different. It's not about getting off, scratching an itch. This is about lazy Saturday mornings and cooking dinner and spending forever together.

“Another.” He lifts his glass to the man behind the bar.

Apparently, it's not enough that he'll be on a crutch for the rest of his life, and he's hiding his mother's Jewish ancestry behind his father's Portuguese blood. No, Daniel's got to fall in love with another man. He's damaged in every single way there is.

Why can't he fall in love with Peggy? She's brilliant, beautiful and that accent is amazing. And he's definitely attracted to her. But when he thinks about love, it's tall, blonde, and one hundred percent American.

“To Peggy and Jack,” he toasts with the bartender, who grunts and moves along to the next patron.

Daniel devours the whiskey and staggers out, somehow makes it home to sleep off the booze, and hopefully to forget The Moment.

-

He wakes up to a cold splash of water to the face.

“Up and at 'em, Sousa,” Jack Thompson says cheerfully. “You're twenty minutes late for work.”

Daniel splutters and sits up fast, then groans and clutches his head.

“Bit of a bender last night?” Jack chuckles. “Come on, Dan, lets get you dressed.”

“Don't call me that,” Sousa growls and looks up at Jack. And that's when he realizes that his shirt's on the floor, and he's only got a sleeveless undershirt on other than his undershorts.

Quickly he tugs his pants on, blinking up at Jack as he reappears.

Christ, Jack Thompson is in his fucking bedroom.

Jack tugs a shirt on the quiet Daniel and steps closer to button it up.

“Used to do this for my old man,” he murmurs. “Lost everything in the Crash, never got over it,” Jack says as he strings a tie around Daniel's neck. “Would go sit on a bench all day long, then come home and drink himself to sleep.” He smooths the tie after knotting it expertly, and puts a hand on Daniel's shoulder. “There ya go, pal. All set.”

Daniel's been standing there dumbly the whole time, still trying to wrap his mind around Jack actually being here, and he slowly looks up at the blonde, who's looking down at him with one cocked brow. He completely loses control. Daniel surges up and crushes his lips against Jack's. And for one long, glorious moment, Jacks kisses him back. Then, of course, he jerks backs eyes wide, and stares at Daniel. The moment stretches on forever, and then Thompson snorts. “Guess you're still pretty hammered. Come on, kid, let's get you some coffee.”

Daniel doesn't know what to say, so he just follows along in his boss' wake like a wounded puppy. Jack takes him to the diner – a very silent, very uncomfortable car ride – and orders him coffee and breakfast, taking the time to flirt heavily with their waitress. She shuts Jack down hard and any other day, Daniel would be amused. Today, he's feeling decidedly sympathetic.

“You better now, kid?” Jack asks after Daniel's done, and he nods. They climb back into the car, and Daniel can't take the silence.

“Jack...” he starts, then hesitates, “...about earlier – ”

“Forget it,” Jack interrupts as he makes the left to go to the office.

“I don't want to forget it,” Daniel says stubbornly.

“I wan in the Army, too,” Jack says. “I know that things happen in war, but we're home now, and there's plenty of girls to choose from. 'Sides,” he says, checking the mirror, “thought you were sweet on Peggy.”

“Peggy's not available,” Daniel mumbles, looking out the window.

“Neither am I, Sousa,” Jack says softly. “I got plans that don't include any kinds of entanglements.”

Daniel doesn’t answer, doesn't say anything as he makes his way from the car to his desk, and pulls out the bottles of aspirin, downing two.

“Rough night?” Peggy says from behind him.  
“Could say that,” he mutters and then starts going through the files on his desk. Peggy doesn't ask, and Daniel's grateful for that, and by the time they get a lead around lunchtime, he's feeling mostly human again.

Right up until their lead turns out to be an ambush, leaving Thompson and Sousa buried in a basement with a collapsed building on top of them. Once Jack's creative bout of swearing does down, and he's wasted an hour hitting things, a deep silence descends. It has to be well over an hour before Jack breaks it.

“I'm a shitty person, Dan.”

Sousa's headache is back and he's dying of thirst, and he might be just a touch claustrophobic. His response is a little harsher than perhaps it needs to be.

“Yeah, I know, asshole.”

Jack snorts a laugh and shakes his head. “You don't know that half of it. I'm no one _anyone_ should be goddamned involved with.”

Daniel just lays his head back and closes his eyes. “Don't call me Dan.”

-

Three hours of absolute silence later, Peggy's gorgeous face peers at them through a hole in the rubble.

“Evening, gentlemen,” she says cheerfully. “You seem a bit in need of a rescue.”

“Get Sousa out first,” Jack orders. “He's not feeling well.”

Daniels watches Jacks in silence as Peggy and the others pull him up. Jack meets his gaze, keeps it until Sousa's out of sight.

“Damn him,” Daniel mutters once he's released and handed a makeshift crutch.

Peggy gives him a sympathetic glance. “Must have been tough being trapped for hours with Thompson.”

“Yeah,” Sousa says, waiting until Jack clears the opening to head home. “You could say that.”

-

“Wake up, Sousa!”

There's a pounding in his head, and he can't seem to open his eyes.

“Dammit, Dan.” There's a sharp pain at his cheek. “Wake the _fuck_ up!”

Jack sounds...off. Daniel manages to flutter his eyes briefly open and mumble, “Don't call me that.”

“Jesus, you had me worried.” Jack relaxes back and runs his hand through his hair.

“Thought you didn't care,” Sousa slurs before fading back into the darkness. But just before he passes back out, Daniel thinks he hears Jack murmur, “I never said that.”

-

Turns out the blonde who bought Daniel a few drinks at the bar had poisoned him, and he'll be laid up in the hospital for a week. Peggy brings him the paper every morning on her way to work. Everyone else stops by at least once.

Except Jack. Not once does Thompson come to see him.

-

Or so he thinks.

Jack watches Daniel sleep every night. He leaves before Sousa wakes up, changes his shirt and shaves at the office. Peggy tells him that he looks like shit. He tells her to fuck off. It's the most normal conversation they've had in months.

Jack won't get a full night's sleep until Daniel is home safe. He watches from across the street as Peggy helps Daniel into his apartment, then Jack goes home. Locks himself in, and drinks himself into oblivion for the next two days. Then he gets his shit together, and shows up on Monday morning bright and early, greets Sousa with a brusque nod and generic, _Welcome back_ , and then goes into his office to sort files. He brings out the assignments, partners up Sousa and Carter, ignoring the betrayal in those deep brown eyes. His agents clear out and Jack heads to the local congressman's office. He spend the rest of the day securing the SSA's funding for the next year.

Jack excels at the political part of this job, and he's smart enough to know that he's a better chief than he ever was an agent. He's also smart enough to know that being with Sousa – in any fashion – would ruin everything he's ever wanted for himself. He's not giving up his dreams for anything.

Not even Daniel Sousa.

-

His vow lasts just over a week before Daniel does something reckless, puts himself stupidly in harms way, and Jacks has to call Sousa into his office. He gets up in his face, slamming Daniel up against the door.

“The hell were you _thinking_? You could have been hurt – again – or, god forbid, even killed...” He trails off as he looks down at Sousa – who's grinning like an idiot. “What on earth is so funny?”

Daniel just reaches up and curls his hand around the lapel of Jack's suit coat, and yanks him forward. He catches Jack off-guard, lifting his lips to catch the taller man's. There's nothing at first, no reaction whatsoever, then – like a dam has burst – Jack is a drowning man, and Daniel is the only water on earth. He dives into the kiss, kissing Sousa more thoroughly than he's ever been kissed before. It lasts forever – and not long enough. It's Jack who tears himself away, of course, dizzy and gasping for air, and who bonelessly flops down onto the small sofa in his office, with his face in his hands.

“Get the fuck out of my office.”

Daniel slowly limps over, curves his hand around the back of Jacks' neck, and leans in to press a soft kiss on the top of the blonde's head.

He leaves without saying another word.

-

Jack figures that's just about the end of it until Sousa shows up on his doorstep on a Friday night with a suitcase and bags of groceries. Jack opens the door with an arched brow, but Daniel just pushes the brown bags into his arms and shoves the suitcase into the apartment with his foot.

“Kitchen counter,” he orders, and Jack, bemused, takes the bag into the small gallery-style kitchen and automatically stars putting that food away. Sousa comes in after hanging up his coat and hat, opens up the fridge and hands Jack a beer.

“Games on in ten.”

Jack hurries over to tune the radio into it, and by the time the first run is scored, he's fully focused on it, swearing at the pitcher and arguing with the referee.

“You know they can't hear you right?” Sousa mocks as he sets down a plate in front of Jack. For a moment, Thompson can't think, because there's something about Daniels' sleeve rolled up, the kitchen towel over his shoulder, the soft way he's looking at Jack right now – No. He cuts off the line of thought before it can get started and instead takes a big bite of whatever slop Sousa's thrown together.

“Holy Christ,” he breathes, staring at his plate. “This is goddamned _fantastic_ , Dan.”

“Don't call me that,” he says automatically, but Sousa smirks a bit as Jack devours everything on his plate.

They have another beer together, listening to the end of the the game, and then Jack turns to look at Daniel after turning the radio off.

“Why are you here, anyway?”

“Because you need me,” Daniel says simply and takes another swig from his beer.

Jack looks at him in amusement. “Me... Need _you_?”

Daniel nods. “I've been watching you for these past couple months, Jack.” He tilts his head. “You don't think very much of yourself. You think you've got something to prove to the world.” He points his beer at Thompson. “You need someone in your corner, someone who you don't have to prove anything to.”

Jack sips thoughtfully. “And that's you.”

“It is,” Daniel says firmly. “You got flaws, believe me you got flaws, but I love you despite them.”

Jack narrows his eyes and stares at Daniel. “You. _What_?”

“I love you, Jack Thompson,” Daniel sets his beer down and rises, pulls himself over using the back of the chairs, and puts himself right in Jack's lap. Jack automatically wraps his arms around Daniel, then starts to pull them back.

“I'm really not worth all that, Dan – ” he starts, but is interrupted by Sousa's lips against his own. The arms that had been loosening close back around Daniel, and hold him tight for the lengthy but sweet kiss.

“Underneath all the crap,” Daniel whispers against Jack's lips, “I think you are, and I'm willing to spend as long as it takes showing that to you.”

“You're a real pain in the ass, Sousa,” Jack says, going for harsh, but he just sounds breathless.

Daniel grins. “I could be a real pleasure in the ass.”

Jack's shocked for one long second, then he scoops Daniel up in his arms and throws the smaller man over his shoulder.

“Not a chance, Sousa.” He takes Daniel into the bedroom and tosses the dark-haired man onto his bed. “If anyone around here's going to get fucked, it'll be you.” Before Sousa can protest, Jack's covering him with his body, pinning the smaller man to the mattress and kissing him with a demanding roughness that makes his dick take notice. Jack feels it twitch against his thigh and chuckles softly, murmurs against Daniel's ear. “You like that, hm? Like me being in charge? Good, because I'm going to use you _thoroughly_.”

Jack makes good on his word, putting his entire focus on the sex with Daniel, and by the time he's done, Daniel is passed out, exhausted. Jack runs a hand tenderly through his hair and pulls the smaller man into his arms and holds him tightly.

“I love you too, you stubborn jerk,” he tells the sleeping man, “but this can never happen again.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [Tumblr](goddessofcruelty.tumblr.com)


End file.
